Ozlem Tekin - Life and Career

Life and Career

Özlem Tekin was born in California, United States into a Turkish-American family. Her father Talat Tekin was a prominent Turkologist at UC Berkeley. The Tekins moved to Turkey when she was four years old. Özlem grew up in Ankara, where she studied classical western music at the Hacettepe University Music Conservatory in Ankara, specializing in the clarinet.

She started out as the vocalist in The Bad. The Bad was an underground rock band like most other rock bands and they would perform gigs at clubs, often playing covers of other popular bands. In 1993, she met Şebnem Ferah, who has now also become another recognized rock musician in Turkey, and became the keyboard player of the successful all-female rock band Volvox. Özlem occasionally performed as the lead singer as well.

While still in Volvox, she met Hakan Peker and they started working on her debut solo album in 1994. This album, Kime Ne (who cares?), was eventually released in January 1996 to widespread critical acclaim. The first single Aşk Herşeyi Affeder Mi? (Does love forgive everything?), written by Barlas Erinç shot to the top of the charts. Other hit tracks include Duvaksız Gelin (Bride without a veil) and Herkes Şanslı Doğmuyor (Not everyone is born lucky).

Then, Özlem Tekin left Hakan Peker's record label and went to İstanbul Plak which also had acquired other popular singers such as Tarkan. Her second album Öz was released in February 1998. This spawned Yol which became an enormous hit.

Laubali came out a year later to great acclaim.

Özlem started up her own TV show on Kanal D called Yaz Rüzgarı (Summer Wind) in 2000. This aired for 1 hour, 5 days a week and received high ratings. In 2003 she started acting in the TV series "Sil Baştan" (From the Beginning). This show aired for 2 years, also with high ratings.

In 2005, she starred in the stage musical "Mucizeler Komedisi" (The Comedy of Miracles). That same year, her new album "10987654321" was released, which presented a much harder sound than her previous efforts.

In 2006 she acted in the Cem Yılmaz movie "Hokkabaz" (The Trickster). In the same year, she also featured in the TV movie "Maçolar".

Her fans celebrated her tenth year in music by naming a forest after her: "Özlem Tekin-Bahar Ormanı (Özlem Tekin-Spring Forest)" by her fans.

In 2007, she had a role in another TV movie "Fesupanallah" as well as acting on stage with the famous Metin Serezli in a theater show named "Kim O". She also featured in duets with up and coming musicians during the year. (Ozturk's "Ben Uyurken," Badem's "Kalpsiz")

In 2008, she started a new TV programme at Kral TV, one of the most established national music channels in Turkey. The programme's name is "Hiperaktif" (hyperactive) after Özlem's character. Also in 2008 she featured with Turkish singer Mişa, in his song "Dost Kalamam".

In 2010, after a long break since her last album, she released her sixth studio album, "Bana Bi'şey Olmaz". One of the old tracks, "Sil Baştan", which she wrote for the TV series with the same name, is in this album. She also recorded "Sen Anla" which was written by her and vocalized, and used by a famous Turkish singer, Levent Yüksel, in his earlier album. One of the interesting things about new album is that she interpreted a famous Anatolian folk song "Hey Onbeşli" as "Aslan Yarim", in her own musical style. The first video clip from this album was "Yatağım Boş". After a while, second video clip "Kimse Bilmez" started to appear on TV channels. Third video clip "Sen Anla" was released and had a better popularity than the previous singles.